Red Carpet entry

Kuala Lumpur Travel Blog

The third time I was flying out of the country by myself and straight from a long day at work. the second time i was flying out close to midnight. i wonder why Philippine carriers always seem to have their flight outs late at night? its a bit scary to arrive in a strange land at dawn, don't ya agree?

boy was i excited! travelling overseas again after 2 years.

the departure and arrival uneventful, more preoccupied with how to get to my friend's address at dawn. upon getting to the airport i started to have a dose of the pungent smell some asians are known for, either from the food, soap that they use, or the weather, i have yet to know.

the KL airport is small, in about 10 minutes i was flying out the door with my trolley bag.

More dramatic poses. Wishing I lived here.

my girl friend who'd been living there for roughly 2 months was kind enough to let me stay at her place at Pantai Hillpark and just gave me her address a few hours before the flight. she was also kind and independent enough to allow me to find my way to her place by myself, nothing personal.

so there i was trying to appear cool but haggardly trying to figure out if i could take one of the buses lined up outside the airport instead of a cab. being adventurous and wanting to start off thrifty, i decided to go for the former.

boy was it humid! i felt suffocated upon entering the bus and a little overwhelmed by the lack of airconditioning and pungent smell, the conductor's and drivers, not without effort were able to kindly convey to me upon my showing them my friend's address written on a sheet of paper that they were going to pass by close to the place.

Still enjoying posing around Pantai.

i waited for about 30-40 min since they had a scheduled departure time, in the meantime, I was entertained by the crazy movie 'Blades of Glory', this was past 1am. i asked how long it was gonna take to the stop they were dropping me off only to sadly find out it was 1.5 hrs! thats on top of a cab ride i had to take to my place from the stop, crazy!

after the long wait, the only other passenger who joined me in the bus was an old Malaysian guy. i was also bugged by the conductor, a fellow Filipino who couldn't speak much Tagalog since he came from another island. and so the 1.5 hrs bus ride started. now KL is like one big island with a city in the middle as what the locals said. hence the bus ride was uneventful with miles and miles of lamp posts and forestry.

Lounging around in the wee hours of the morning.

now why would an airport be situated so far from the city? again it boggles me.

finally, I got to the stop, took a cab, and after computing, realized i had cut down on paying for an overrated cab price past midnight had i taken that straight from the airport, good job! (since they had a different price before midnight) to 70% (34MYR instead of close to a 100MYR, whew!)

i got to my friend's address with the cab driver having difficulty locating it (dunno why?) and the thing is all the condominium's in KL seem to look the same! Good luck! so i couldn't freaking figure out which Phase my friend was living in (this was at 3am) the unfriendly security guards were not helping at all, just relying solely on their non verbals.

so i got off with the cab driver not having any change and opting to wait for me. i lugged around my baggage swearing that the next time i was certainly gonna make everything fit in a backpack, sleepily looking around for my friend's place. i chose a building i thought was the right one, funnily took 6 flights of darkly lit steps and exasperated gave up.

chose another building this time and found that it was the right one after seeing the building number! gawd! twas way out back! and annoyingly, the cab driver realized it as well because he was right in front of the building, thank you for letting me discover it myself with my heavy baggage in tow.

found my friend (she realized i was there, hearing a loud thump and a voice from the ground, since the place was already dead quiet) and finally paid off the cab (29MYR)

Aileen's place was a small room among 3 (she had Iranian and German guy housemates) with a shared living room, kitchen and veranda. glad i was about to rest but was welcomed with the fact that we were gonna spend the night at her other Filipino friend's place which was better furnished and more spacious located a few minutes away at another block. i also found out that her friend's made her realize at the last minute what it was to be a host, which entailed her picking me up. it was too late though since i never got her message with my roaming feature deactivated hence we barely missed each other at the airport.

so i had to noisily drag my luggage around the cobblestones again for a few minutes to arrive at her friend's place. find them all awake and eagerly awaiting me (how sweet!) and exchanged pleasantries. they had us stay in the master's bedroom and i exhaustingly slumped onto the bed.